Born of the Virgin Mary

[0:00] Well, if we could, this evening, with the Lord's help and the Lord's enabling, if we could turn back to that portion of Scripture that we read, the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 1, and if we read again at verse 18.

[0:21] Matthew 1 at verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

[0:35] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

[1:00] And so on. Well, this evening I'd like us to consider the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, because the doctrine of the virgin birth, it's fundamental to Christianity.

[1:15] And over the centuries, the doctrine of the virgin birth, it has been twisted and distorted and even denied. But in order for us to reaffirm this fundamental doctrine, I'd like us to just focus upon it for a short while, because the virgin birth is something that we, well, we already affirm to it, and we already uphold it as a fundamental Christian doctrine.

[1:39] And we do that in what is before your eyes, is the Apostles' Creed. And I'd like to draw your attention to the words of the Apostles' Creed, because the words of the Apostles' Creed, they're not something that we just adhere to as a denomination.

[1:53] The Apostles' Creed is something which the universal church worldwide, the Christian church, it's something that it asserts, maintains, and defends.

[2:04] And it was called the Apostles' Creed not because it was written by the apostles, but because it's based upon the teaching of the apostles. And the Creed that you have before you, I'll just read it.

[2:15] I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.

[2:27] He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

[2:41] From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, that's the universal church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

[2:57] And so by drawing upon what's before us in Matthew's Gospel and the words of the Apostles' Creed, I want us to think about the words, as it says in the Apostles' Creed, born of the Virgin Mary.

[3:09] Because what do we mean when we affirm the doctrine, or the words, born of the Virgin Mary? Because, you know, without the doctrine of the Virgin birth, well, you don't have Christianity.

[3:24] In fact, it was the 20th century Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, he said that without accepting the Virgin birth, you will never accept the Gospel. And Karl Barth said in that quote that you have before you, the Virgin birth is posted on guard at the door of every, of the mystery of Christmas, and none of us must think of hurrying past it.

[3:47] It stands on the threshold of the New Testament, blatantly supernatural, defying our rationalism, informing us that all that follows belongs to the same order as itself, and if we find it offensive, there is no point proceeding further.

[4:03] If our faith staggers at the Virgin birth, what is it going to make of the feeding of the 5,000, the calming of the storm, the raising of Lazarus, the transfiguration, the resurrection, and above all, the astonishing self-consciousness of Jesus?

[4:19] The Virgin birth, says Barth, is God's gracious declaration, at the very outset of the Gospel, that the act of faith is a legitimate sacrifice of intellect.

[4:31] And so if the Virgin birth is posted on guard at the door of the mystery of Christmas, as he says himself, and none of us must think of hurrying past it, then I want us to do as, Karl Barth encourages us, let's stop and consider what it means.

[4:47] Let's stop and consider the Virgin birth. And I want us to think about the Virgin birth by simply drawing upon these words from the Apostles' Creed. Born of the Virgin Mary.

[4:59] And I want us to think about these words by taking each word in turn. Born of the Virgin Mary. That's the three points.

[5:09] Born, Virgin, Mary. So we look first of all at the fact that Jesus was born. It says in verse 18, Now the birth of Jesus took place in this way.

[5:20] When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And so the humanity of Jesus Christ and this union as we were looking at last week, the union of the two distinct natures in one person.

[5:39] As we know, it didn't happen out of nothing. Like it did with Adam. Adam was made out of nothing. But Jesus, he wasn't created. He was born of Mary.

[5:51] And out of all of humanity's existence, Mary was given the privilege of bearing the child Jesus and giving birth to him and raising him as her son. And as her son, Jesus was of the same substance as Mary.

[6:06] Meaning that he was human. And Mary's contribution to the birth of Jesus was the same as any human mother contributes to the birth of their child.

[6:18] In fact, you could say that Jesus was, as we were singing in Psalm 127, Jesus was the fruit of Mary's womb. But as Singler Ferguson, he points out that we shouldn't regard the virgin birth as supernatural.

[6:33] Because the birth of Jesus was perfectly natural. It was his conception that was supernatural. It was the virgin conception by the Holy Spirit that was supernatural.

[6:47] And that's what we read about here in verse 18. That's also what the Apostles' Creed alludes to, that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and he was born of the virgin Mary.

[7:01] And so Mary contributed to everything a mother would contribute to a child being born from her except without sin. Except sin.

[7:12] And you know, I was reading up about this and I just found it fascinating. And I don't really understand what it was on about because I'm not a scientist. But it said that the son of this particular woman, Jesus Christ, he bore, or he, well, when Jesus was in Mary's womb, he had 23 of Mary's chromosomes.

[7:34] Now, I don't really understand this. But that would have resulted in Jesus possessing many of Mary's hereditary features like looks or skin colour, hair, height, size, all these things.

[7:47] All these things that we inherit from our parents and our grandparents. But what's fascinating is that even though Jesus possessed 23 of Mary's chromosomes, the chromosome that contributes to the gender of a child, which is known as the Y chromosome, it's always provided by a biological father.

[8:08] That chromosome, the Y chromosome, it must have been provided miraculously by the Holy Spirit. Meaning that the Holy Spirit supplied that aspect of Jesus' full and complete humanity.

[8:24] He was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. And even Professor Don McLeod, he says in his book, this is a great mystery.

[8:36] So if you're baffled by it, well, you're not the only one. But you know, as a little embryo in Mary's womb, Jesus grew and grew and he was fed and he received all the necessary nutrients a child needs in the womb and he would receive it like us all from an umbilical cord.

[8:55] And in the womb, his bones and his flesh and his organs, they were all being formed. All being formed and fashioned. And as Don McLeod, as he says in his book, The Person of Christ, he says, Christ had the same anatomy, the same physiology, the same biochemistry, the same central nervous system and the same basic genetic code as you and I.

[9:20] And so like every child in the womb, he was fearfully and wonderfully made. Jesus was the fruit of Mary's womb. And as the fruit of Mary's womb and her true biological son, he was born naturally.

[9:34] But more than that, he was born a Jew. He was born in humble circumstances. As we know, we were looking at that on Sunday evening. He was born in Bethlehem. He was born and laid in a feeding trough in a stable.

[9:47] He was born in the poverty of his mother and in the same class as his family. And you know, the point is, in one sense, he was just a normal human being.

[10:00] To the human eye, he looked the same as any newborn child. And you know, this is the wonder of wonders that the second person of the Godhead, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the creator of heaven and earth who spoke everything into being by the word of his power, he upholds the universe, he knows and understands all the complexities of the universe and its magnitudes in this world.

[10:27] And yet, he made himself nothing. He became, you could see, an embryo in his mother's womb and he was born to her as a little child.

[10:38] And now, as we're reading here, he's lying in the arms of his mother, Mary. And it's the greatest mystery. That's why Paul is fascinated by it. He calls it the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

[10:51] The greatest mystery. And yet, it's the most beautiful mystery. Mary is holding the Son of God as her newborn child. And as her son, well, he would look Jewish.

[11:05] He would have had all the features of Jewish DNA about him. The colour of his skin, the features of his face, his eyes, his nose, his mouth, his ears, his lips, his hands, his feet.

[11:18] He was a little boy. He was male and not female. He was truly God yet truly man. And as a newborn baby, as you see it, when you see a newborn baby, he has those little, he had those little fingers and those little toes.

[11:34] You know, that's what always strikes me every time I see a newborn baby. Their fingers and their, even their fingernails. And how everything is so small and yet it's fearfully and wonderfully made.

[11:48] And you know, when you think about the words of that, Christmas carol, Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin, mother and child, holy infant, so tender and mild, sleeping in heavenly peace, sleeping in heavenly peace.

[12:08] And you know, the carol, it might seem like a little bit of sentimentality to say that, well, this newborn son of God is sleeping in heavenly peace. but you know, it actually emphasises the reality of what God became.

[12:23] That the infant Jesus was sleeping in a manger. He's sleeping. It's not one of the first questions parents ask, that we ask parents of a newborn child.

[12:37] Is he sleeping yet? Is she sleeping? Are you getting any sleep? And if the answer is yes, well, I always feel cheated because that wasn't my experience of it.

[12:48] But it's so true, isn't it, that even with Jesus, when he was a baby, he was fed by his mother, changed by his mother, then probably rocked to sleep by his mother.

[13:01] Mary may have sung him a lullaby, his eyes would have grown heavy just like any child and finally his little limbs would have gotten heavier and heavier as he, the child, would just let go and drift off into sleep.

[13:17] And as the little baby Jesus, the creator of the universe, he's fast asleep. The creator who knows everything, everything potential and everything actual. He knows the past, the present and the future.

[13:31] He knows it all and yet, in that tiny brain, in that tiny little body, he knows almost nothing. He's just living by instinct, knowing that he's hungry, knowing that he's tired, recognizing maybe the voice of his mother, Mary.

[13:47] He was everywhere present, yet he was contracted to the span of a tiny baby, falling asleep in the arms of his mother.

[14:01] And you know, my friend, when you consider the virgin birth, it stretches your mind and it also tests your faith. But you know, it should also make us see the beauty of salvation.

[14:15] That God became man in order to be like us and in order to relate to us. Because, as a child, Jesus knew dependence.

[14:28] He experienced hunger, tiredness, thirst. He slept, he wept, he sweated, he bled, he was exhausted, he was beaten, flogged, and wounded.

[14:40] He felt pain the same way we do. He wasn't lessened in any way because he was God. He didn't get a special dispensation because of who he was. No, he was made like us in order to relate to us.

[14:55] He entered into our experience and he knows what physical, spiritual, and emotional pain is. He knows what loss is. He knows what abandonment is. He knows what darkness is. He knows what grief is.

[15:07] This is the wonder of who Jesus is. That he knows what we're going through. And he knows how it feels. And he understands what it's like. And you know, that's why we should come to him.

[15:21] That's why we should cast all our cares upon him. That's why we, as the writer to the Hebrew says, we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities.

[15:32] And he uses the double negative to say, yes, we have a high priest. We have one who, one we can come to and pour out our hearts before because he was so like us that we can come to him, come to the throne of grace and not only receive mercy from him, but grace to help in time of need.

[15:53] That's why we should come to him. That's why we should cast all our cares upon him. Because he can relate to us. But this Jesus, he not only came to relate to us, he also came to redeem us.

[16:08] And that's what I'd like us to consider secondly. He came to redeem us because Jesus Christ, as it says in the Apostles Creed, he was born of a virgin.

[16:21] He was born of the virgin Mary. So the second point is he's born of a virgin. Look at verse 21. It says, she that is Mary will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

[16:37] All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

[16:51] And what we can see is that the Bible and the Apostles Creed, it makes very clear to us that Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary. But it was this man called Anselm of Canterbury.

[17:03] He wrote one of the greatest expositions of the Incarnation and he wrote it way back in the 11th century. And Anselm, he was an extraordinary man who wrote this book on the Incarnation and it's known by its Latin name, Cur Deus Homo, Why the God-Man?

[17:22] And that's the question he's asking, why the God-Man? Why did God become man? Why was it necessary for God to take to himself a true body and a reasonable soul?

[17:33] Cur Deus Homo, Why the God-Man? And the simple answer, although it's a difficult book to read, the simple answer that Anselm came to was that without God becoming man, we couldn't be saved.

[17:46] We need another Adam. That's what he said. We need another Adam to come and rescue us from our sin. We need a substitute. We need a sinless sin-bearer.

[17:56] And there was no one who was good enough to pay the price of sin. We couldn't provide it for ourselves. The Redeemer couldn't come from a fallen humanity.

[18:10] And so Jesus had to become man. He had to be conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. And as we said, Jesus was born of Mary in order to possess our humanity and relate to us in all our weaknesses.

[18:25] Jesus was born like us in order to relate to us. But he was born of a virgin in order to redeem us. He was born sinless in order to be our sin-bearer.

[18:40] Because if Jesus was born of two human parents, if he was born from Mary and Joseph, he would have possessed that hereditary sin of Adam.

[18:51] But because he was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, he was born sinless. And as one who is sinless and without the sin of Adam, you could say that he's now a new race.

[19:06] He doesn't have this original sin, this posterity that's full of sin. He's a new head of a new race. And Donald MacLeod, I'm drawing upon him because, well, he's the mind behind it.

[19:21] He says that the Virgin birth is a sign of God's judgment on our human nature. The race needs a redeemer, he says. We cannot produce one, not by our own decision, not by our own desire, not by the process of education or civilization.

[19:38] The redeemer, he says, must come from outside. And as one who comes from outside, Jesus Christ is a new beginning. He's not a development of something that has gone before.

[19:50] He's a divine intrusion. He has come into our world and he is the last great culminating eruption of the power of God into the plight of man.

[20:04] It's wonderful what he says. And what he's saying is that Jesus was born like us in order to relate to us, but he was born a virgin in order to redeem us. Because in order to die for our sins, Jesus, he had to be the sinless sin bearer.

[20:22] But as you know, the virgin birth of Jesus, it has often been scoffed at. Many liberal theologians, they argue that the word virgin should just be translated as young woman.

[20:38] And this is particularly related to the prophecy of Isaiah 7, 14, which Matthew quotes here in verse 23. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.

[20:51] But you know, it's difficult to see how this would be a sign if it was translated as young woman. Because in those days, a young woman giving birth was hardly a sign.

[21:05] It was hardly a sign for the visitation of God and the fulfilment of a great prophecy. Because it was quite common for a young woman to conceive and bear a son. But it wasn't common for a virgin to do it.

[21:18] And so the sign of the Messiah had to be a virgin conceiving and bearing a son. And that's what Matthew is stressing here, that this 700 year old prophecy from Isaiah, it has been fulfilled with the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

[21:34] And so Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary in order to die for our sins as the sinless sin-bearer. But as you can expect, with the complexity of the virgin birth, it has been the result of many heresies that have been formulated and endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church.

[21:58] And one which I'm sure you've heard of is the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Not the Immaculate Conception of Jesus, but the Immaculate Conception of Mary. And the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, it came about because the Roman Catholic Church struggled with the idea that Jesus could only be completely sinless if Mary was also completely sinless.

[22:22] And so the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which was proclaimed by the Pope as the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, only just over 150 years ago, in 1854, it taught that when Mary was conceived, she was free from original sin.

[22:38] Not that she was born of a virgin, but in her conception and birth, Mary was free from Adamic sin, from original sin. But as you know, this doctrine is completely unbiblical and there's no grounding whatsoever.

[22:55] But you know what's even more remarkable is that the Koran says that Jesus and Mary were the only two children not to be touched by Satan at the moment of their birth.

[23:08] And the Koran explains that God placed a veil between them and Satan to protect them from original sin, which, again, is a load of nonsense.

[23:21] And I say that it's a load of nonsense because it's nonsensical. It's contrived thought and imaginary feeling. But what's worse is that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, it has led to the veneration of Mary in the Roman Catholic Church.

[23:39] Because Roman Catholicism, it teaches that if Mary is the sinless mother of God, then we can pray to her. And we can ask her for forgiveness, or we can ask Mary to ask Jesus for forgiveness.

[23:53] Mary can be our mediator with our mediator Jesus Christ. And as you can expect, one heresy leads to another. It's a downward spiral. because the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary and the sinlessness of the Virgin Mary, it has taught or brought in the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary.

[24:17] Meaning that the Virgin Mary, she never lost her virginity throughout her entire life. And I tell you this because it's good to know heresy because then you can identify it straight away.

[24:28] Mary and the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary, well, it contradicts scripture because Mary, as you know, she had many children and Jesus had many brothers and many sisters.

[24:40] But with heresy it's only a downward spiral away from the truth. And as recent as the 1950s, the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, he declared that Mary never died, she was just assumed into heaven.

[24:55] The doctrine of the assumption of Mary was declared by the Pope with the words, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed apostles and Peter, and by her own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma, that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.

[25:22] But you know, the greatest problem with that statement is that the Pope declared a doctrine according to his own authority, and not the authority of scripture.

[25:34] But with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary, and the assumption of the Virgin Mary, these doctrines, all these doctrines, they have led the Catholic Church to venerate and worship and adore and even pray to Mary.

[25:50] In fact, these doctrines seek to make Mary equal equal with Christ, equal with him, essentially proclaiming Mary to be God. They deify Mary, which, as you know, it's not the teaching of the Bible.

[26:07] Yes, we're to give Mary honour. We are to give her her place as one, as the Bible says, she was blessed among women, as the only woman in all of humanity's existence who was given the task of bearing the child Jesus in her womb and giving birth to him.

[26:25] But despite all that, Mary was just a sinner and she needed a saviour like you and I. And this is what we need to remember.

[26:36] She was a normal woman, a normal mother, with normal feelings towards her children. And that's what I'd like us to consider thirdly. The third key word in this phrase of the Apostles' Creed is that Jesus Christ, he was born of the Virgin Mary.

[26:54] But look at Mary. Look at verse 24. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.

[27:11] It said that Mary was only about 16 when she gave birth to Jesus. But who was this Mary? Because, well, we're not told much about her.

[27:23] But what we are told is that she worshipped the Lord as the mother of Jesus. In Luke chapter 1, we have Mary's song that she sings before Jesus is born.

[27:36] And Mary sings, she says, So that's Mary's song.

[27:58] She worships the Lord. But then in Luke chapter 2, when Jesus is brought to the temple in Jerusalem, we're told that when Simeon took Jesus in his arms, he blessed God and he said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.

[28:19] For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

[28:30] And as Mary and Joseph, as they marvelled at what Simeon was saying about Jesus, Simeon said, Behold, this child is appointed for the fallen rising of many in Israel.

[28:41] But then Simeon, you'll remember in Luke chapter 2, he makes this prophecy about Mary. And he says, A sword will pierce through your own soul. A sword will pierce through your own soul.

[28:58] And as the Gospels remind us, Mary pondered these things in her heart. She pondered what Simeon meant. And she knew that, well, she knew that what was ahead of her son wasn't going to be good.

[29:16] And she knew what probably was ahead of her as a mother. And, you know, thinking about it, we don't know much about Mary, but she must have had a hard life. She always knew that the cross was before Jesus.

[29:29] she always knew that her son was going to be a sacrifice for sin. And, you know, if you've ever seen that painting by Holman Hunt of when Jesus is older, he's probably in his twenties, and he's in his father's workshop.

[29:50] And the painting by Holman Hunt, it's called The Shadow of Death. And it's a fascinating painting because in the painting you see Mary on her knees and she must be cleaning.

[30:03] And then you've got Jesus and he's standing, just standing up and you see him and there's light shining on him. The daylight is coming through the window and he's shining.

[30:15] And behind him there's a shadow. And the shadow on the wall behind, it looks just like he's hanging on the cross. And, you know, it's a fascinating picture by Holman Hunt that portrays that Jesus was not only living in the shadow of death all his life, but Mary was too.

[30:36] Mary was living in the shadow of her son's death. She was always wondering when it was going to come. And, you know, when you follow the gospel narrative you see Mary's dedication and commitment to her son.

[30:53] All the way through the narrative because even when we come to the cross, Mary is still standing by Jesus. John tells us in his gospel that standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene.

[31:10] And when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother.

[31:22] And we're told that from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. And even in that Jesus honoured his father and his mother in his death. And for Mary watching her firstborn son die, and to die in such a manner, you know, it must have been horrendous.

[31:44] But Mary knew that her son was dying for her sin. She knew that her son was dying for her sin. And that's deep.

[31:58] That's something she pondered in her heart. But you know, I love what Donald MacLeod says in his book. He says, Mary's contribution did not end with the birth.

[32:10] She provided the home, the environment, and the nurture within which Jesus grew up and may well have had to do so as a single parent. The total lack of reference to Joseph during the public ministry strongly suggests that by that time he had died.

[32:27] Under his mother's care, Jesus grew physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually. And even though at times Mary was uncomprehending, her loyalty to him never faltered.

[32:40] She was with him to the end, and her love, support, and early guidance contributed inestimably, to making him the man he was. Then he says, that does not mean that she merits adoration, but she does deserve our gratitude.

[32:59] And so we've done as Karl Barth has suggested. If the virgin birth is posted on guard at the door of the mystery of Christmas, none of us must think of hurrying past it.

[33:12] And by not hurrying past it, we've considered in some way the mystery of the virgin birth by using the Apostles' Creed, conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.

[33:26] And by not hurrying past the virgin birth, we've seen the beauty of Jesus. Well, I hope we have seen the beauty of Jesus. That he was born like us in order to relate to us.

[33:38] And he was born of the Virgin Mary in order to redeem us. And he has redeemed us, as we know, not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but by his own precious blood.

[33:56] So that is the birth of Jesus, conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Let us pray.

[34:06] O Lord, our gracious God, we stand in awe and wonder at what thou hast done in and through the person of Jesus Christ.

[34:19] That these things are exceedingly abundantly above all, more than we could ask or even think. That our minds cannot attain it. That we are left saying like David, such knowledge is too strange for me, too high to understand.

[34:35] But we bless thee, O Lord, that thou art the one who has made that new and living way. That we are able to be clothed in the righteousness of thy Son. That we are able to be redeemed by precious blood.

[34:47] That we are able to have Lord and advocate with the Father and a mediator between God and men. A high priest in which we are able to come and pour out all our petitions and all our worries, all our anxieties and all our burdens.

[35:03] That we are able to come to thee, and to cast all our cares upon thee, knowing that thou art a God who cares for us so much. O Lord, bless us together.

[35:14] Bless thy word to us, we pray, that we would see more of Jesus. That he would increase, that we would decrease. That he would have all the preeminence. That thou wouldst receive the glory.

[35:27] And that if it pleased thee, Lord, that thou wouldst be pleased to bless us. Not because we deserve it, but only because thou art one who is gracious and merciful. Watch over us, we ask.

[35:37] Remember our homes and our families. Remember those who cannot be with us this evening. Those, Lord, who are confined to their homes. Those who are ill and laid aside at this time.

[35:49] Draw near to them, we pray. Comfort them, we ask. And remind them, Lord, of thy presence. That thou art an ever present help, even in times of trouble. undertake for us, then we pray.

[36:01] Continue with us throughout the rest of this week. That if we are spared, Lord, that we might meet on thy day to praise and magnify thy name together. Do us good, we ask, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

[36:13] And for his sake. Amen. We shall conclude in the words of Psalm 139.

[36:28] Psalm 139. We're singing from verse 14 down to the verse 17. Page 433 in the Scottish Psalter.

[36:41] Psalm 139. And verse 14. Thee will I praise, for fearfully and strangely made I am.

[36:51] Thy works are marvellous, and right well my soul doth know the same. My substance was not hid from thee, when as in secret I was made, and in earth's lowest parts was wrought most curiously.

[37:05] We'll sing down to the verse marked 17 of Psalm 139. To God's praise. Thee will I praise, for fearfully and strangely made I am.

[37:28] Thy works are marvellous and right well my soul my soul doth know the same.

[37:43] Thy substance was not hid from thee, when when I was in secret night.

[37:59] What was made and in that slowest part was wrought most curiously.

[38:14] Thine eyes, my substance, did behold yet be in unperfect.

[38:30] And in the volume of thy blood my members all were with.

[38:48] Which after in continuance where fashioned every one.

[39:02] When I speak yet of she blessed word and of them there was none.

[39:20] O gracious God to meet.

[39:37] grace. And in their somehow passing great and numberless they be.

[39:56] In the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forevermore. Amen.